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Not only this particular reminder about the failure of negotiation of the Bush administration, but I notice no one is talking about how Bush let Osama Bin Laden slip away at Tora Bora.
A lot of unwarranted optimism, including "Mission Accomplished."
Did the War in Afghanistan Have to Happen?
In 2001, when the Taliban were weak and ready to surrender, the U.S. passed on a deal. Nearly 20 years later, the Taliban hold all the cards
By Alissa J. Rubin
It was in the waning days of November 2001 that Taliban leaders began to reach out to Hamid Karzai, who would soon become the interim president of Afghanistan: They wanted to make a deal. “The Taliban were completely defeated, they had no demands, except amnesty,” recalled Barnett Rubin, who worked with the United Nations’ political team in Afghanistan at the time...
“One mistake was that we turned down the Taliban’s attempt to negotiate,” Carter Malkasian, a former senior adviser to Gen. Joseph Dunford, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during parts of the Obama and Trump administrations, said of the American decision not to discuss a Taliban surrender nearly 20 years ago. “We were hugely overconfident in 2001, and we thought the Taliban had gone away and weren’t going to come back,” he said. “We also wanted revenge, and so we made a lot of mistakes that we shouldn’t have made.”
"Alissa Johannsen Rubin was born and raised in New York City. She attended Brown University, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in renaissance studies.[3]"
"Alissa Johannsen Rubin was born and raised in New York City. She attended Brown University, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in renaissance studies.[3]"
A person is not their degree. Four years in university does not define one's interest in life.
DH got a bachelor's in Civil engineering. He spent his beginning career supervising women. He ended up being in M&A. Then was the Fortune 100 company's long term planning and strategist.
IDK who this person is and really don't care enough to look her up.
Some people here have a view that many degrees are in useless information.
Some of the people with those useless degrees enrich life in these United States. One need not have graduated with honors with a Stem degree to be a contributing person.
DH graduated top of his class, with highest honors and did not use that degree one day in his entire career. And he retired at 52.
The future of warfare is changing, with new technology increasing the power of each soldier several times over.
At an urban warfare exercise last year in California 100 British Royal Marine commandos using the latest technology defeated 1,500 of their US Marine counterparts because of help from the situational awareness and other technology.
The use of unarmed ground vehicles is also coming in to play, as are increasing special forces capabilities.
In the air this change is even more apparent, although the Taliban have no real capability in this area, despite being left some old helicopters which would face obliteration in battle against more hi-tech weapons.
In terms of the sea, UAV's are also starting to play an increasing role in naval warfare, however other than somalia pirates most terrorist organisations and poverty stricken countries don't have much naval capabilities.
The future is small hi-tech AI forces, backed up by autonomous vehicle capabilities, and forces such as the Taliban would struggle to take on such an enemy.
The conflict ended in 2014, with the end of Operation Enduring Freedom, and associated operations
In 2015, the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission which US Operation Freedom's Sentinel was part of.
This led to a massive drawing down in forces and a mission largely based around supporting and training forces in Afghanistan, we well as infrastructure projects and democratic government.
The US put more specialised units in place such as the Security Force Assistance Brigade in order to fulfil this remit, along with special forces who work with local forces such as the Green Berets, and other countries did the same.
This was starting to see increasing success, until the US decided to close the main support and logistics at Bagram, leaving the Afghan's with no support in terms of US forces, air support, ammunition, food or even pay.
Bagram was closed over night and the Afghans were not even consulted.
The US chose to just snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, based on US politics rather than any proper strategic military advice.
The entire western world has condemned Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal and the way it was handled.
As for the latest weapons they were not issued back in 2014, which was the end of the conflict phase.
Probably so for any occupying force... powerful Afghans used the US military, at its maximum influence, to enrich themselves and nullify their rivals. As US military influenced waned and Taliban influence gained, those same Afghanis played both sides until the only side that was left was the Taliban. The US wasn't going to defeat the Taliban after the only Afghan allies we had were stuck in one city zone. Things were too far gone.
I believe the Trump Administration saw this and it was the reason they shut the elected Afghan government out of peace negotiations with the Taliban.
We were the occupying force of a country with customs and political relationships completely alien to ours. In the beginning I was still idealistic enough to think there was a winning strategy. I didn't know that "No Win" was our destiny.
There's my less-than-two-cents-worth analysis of why we failed.
The initial objective was taking out terrorist groups and that should have just been a case of precision attacks and special forces, however mission creep led to a much larger conflict against the Taliban, and then a nation building and training mission.
The mission should have really only ever have been about taking out terrorists groups, however once committed to a war ion the ground, and having basically achieved a lot of the military goals, training and so called nation building, it is rather stupid to just throw that away and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, which is what Biden has done, and all for the sake of US political point scoring rather than serious military analysis.
The way the withdrawal was carried out, and the cutting off of support to Afghan forces was also nothing short of disgraceful.
However I believe Afghanistan will be the last war of it's type involving the west, as technologies and strategies are evolving.
It seems like this would have been the best way. Strategic hits on terrorist leaders and their training camps.
The nation building training mission was when things went sideways, and ended up being a huge failure.
The US fought a proxy war with Russia in Afghanistan, 1979-89. The so- called last hurrah of the Cold War. The US supplied weapons and education how to use them via Defense contractors. The Stinger middles enabled rebels to shoot Russian aircraft out of the sky.
Thousands of jihadists from all over the world descended on Afghanistan for the opportunity to use these weapons and assist the rebels. This movement quickly evolved into al- Qaeda.
Once Russia and its money withdrew, The country descended into a series of civil war.
The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to crush the Taliban.
In 2016, Trump ran on a promise with completely withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
In 2019-20, the US negotiated full US troop withdrawal with the Taliban and on 2/29/2020 agreed to withdraw all troops by 5/1/2001 and facilitate the release of 5000 Afghan fighters from Afghan prisons which was accomplished in 2020. The agreement legitimized the Taliban.
This agreement did not address resettlement of Afghans who had been helpful to the US/ allies. Nor did it address human rights.
The Trump Admin reduced troops to 2500 before leaving office.
Over 40 years, the US directly and indirectly spent $trillions on Afghanistan. Most of it went into the pockets of US Military industrial complex.
Imagine, they are none to pleased with the end of this gravy train. Only a matter of time before the US enters another conflict somewhere in the world.
It seems like this would have been the best way. Strategic hits on terrorist leaders and their training camps.
The nation building training mission was when things went sideways, and ended up being a huge failure.
I totally agree.
However to embark on nation building and then withdrawal the way the US did was just beyond belief.
If you commit to something it's best to see it through to it's conclusion, which would have been keeping some support in place in terms of the Afghan forces, and keeping some influence in the area.
It only needed to be a relatively small force, as the US and her allies had secured an end to a lot of the conflict back in 2014.
You can blame Bush2, Rumpsfeld and hook mouth Cheney.
As much as we can say that Bush mishandled how we nation built and when we allegedly had Bin Ladin trapped in 2002 but let him slip, what should have we done? What could have we done different to get Bin Ladin? We asked the Taliban to hand us over the war criminal, they thumbed our nose at it. I honestly think there was no other way.
Does that change how Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden mishandled Iraq and Afghanistan, no. They all messed up in their own ways.
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